Don't you guys love Brad Marchand? I bet you guys love Brad Marchand. I know the Canucks love Marchand, to the tune of a 6-2 asskicking that capped off a successful home stand which saw Vancouver run their winning streak to 7 games. It was a good, cathartic night for all Canucks players and fans involved. Here's the rundown of what happened:

The Rundown

The first period was fairly low-event, despite its fair share of intensity. After a Ryan Kesler attempt was foiled by a hard Jarome Iginla bodycheck, Kesler decided he was having none of the Bruins' crap and dropped the gloves with the ex-Flame captain. Although the Canucks account scored the fight a little differently than I did, Iginla still came out the worse for wear and had to leave for the Bruins dressing room, only to miraculously return in the 2nd period.

Play was fairly even in the first period, as the Canucks carried the Corsi advantage 20-18, but trailed in Fenwicks at 11-13. A Yannick Weber slapper snuck through Tuukka Rask's five hole, but it was cleared out of the crease by Kevan Miller, while Roberto Luongo thwarted a Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron chance. It looked like it was going to be a scoreless 1st, until Jannik Hansen threw a curveball that would make Justin Verlander proud:

That shot bent harder than Jarome Iginla's finger did, and good lord his finger looked bad (in my notes, I have "ah holy shit fuck that finger" written down as my initial reaction. So, there ya go). Shockingly, Iginla was back on the ice to start the second period becase, well, hockey players.

The Bruins looked motivated by their teammate's triumphant return, coming out quickly and outshooting Vancouver 5-0 before Reilly Smith shoveled home a backhand to tie the game at 1-1. Then, mt. Torts finally erupted. He called a timeout immediately after the Bruins goal and tore into the Canucks. That seemed to snap Vancouver back to attention, as they upped their play shortly thereafter.

First, David Booth showed the wheels of a $4.25 million hockey player, snapping a shot over Tuukka Rask's glove to restore the 1-goal lead:

Then, Mike Santorelli happened. He cut hard to the front of the Bruins net getting two scoring chances, then shrugged off David Krejci to shovel another shot on goal before Chris Higgins finally stuffed a rebound home:

Then the floodgates opened at the start of the 3rd period. First, Yannick Weber scored the first goal of his Canucks career on a setup from the Sedins:

Shortly thereafter, Jarome Iginla took a roughing penalty in an altercation with Dan Hamhuis, and Henrik Sedin scored on the ensuing powerplay:

And to cap the night off, Chris Tanev capitalized on a shorthanded 2-on-1 on a nice pass from Mike Santorelli to bring the score to 6-1 for the home side:

Reilly Smith added his 2nd of the game in garbage time, but it made no difference. The Canucks ran out the clock in a 6-2 blowout win to bring their league-best winning streak to 7 games.

The Numbers

Those are some beautiful score effects, ladies and gentlemen. The Fenwick chart is a bit deceptive as the Bruins blocked enough shots early to have the edge in Fenwicks, but they trailed in Corsis until Vancouver went up by a couple of goals. Then score effects kicked in, Tuukka Rask and Ochocinco Johnson couldn't stop a beachball, and a blowout ensued. Fun times.

One thing I found interesting was that Claude Julien was hard-matching Zdeno Chara against the Sedins for the better part of two periods. Over that time, Chara held Henrik to an 18.2% Corsi%. As soon as Julien moved away from that matchup in the 2nd period, Henrik went on a 100% Corsi% run that culminated in the Yannick Weber goal in the early 3rd. Chara is pretty good.

In all, the possession numbers looked ugly, as Vancouver was out-attempted 69-40 for the balance of the game. Score-tied situations look much better though, as Vancouver held an 18-17 edge early on. Despite a 36.7% Corsi%, Vancouver was pretty clearly the better team when the game was still in reach.

Oh, and Roberto Luongo stopped 38 of 40 shots to bring his save percentage up to 0.921 on the season. Cory Schneider? He's at 0.917. Maybe this Luongo guy is pretty good after all.

And one more nugget about Canucks Army darling Chris Tanev:

Chris Tanev is now over 88 minutes of 4-on-5 icetime this season. Vancouver's goal differential in those 88 minutes? +1.

I didn't have any 2011 related feelings about this game. We're still cupless. But I'm pleased to have beaten a good team and gotten our 7th straight win. And to make Marchand look a bit silly for taunting when his team is down by 4 goals.

So, I don't know if anyone has been tracking this type of thing before, but is Chris Tanev's PK #'s absolutely out of this world? Like, do we have other examples of players dominating the PK the way he is right now?

Would have liked to see the Canucks dominate possession against the Bruins as well, but with the twins getting killed against Chara while the score was close, it's a bit much to ask of the rest of the team.

By the way, the link to (what's supposed to be) Henrik's goal is actually to a clip of the World Champian embarrassing himself. Not that I mind watching Marchand embarrass himself, just that goals of Henrik scoring are also cool to watch.

Our back end blogware doesn't have one. But "champian" is a well-known Marchand joke. See the very first link in the article.

Obviously the smarter guy was holding the ink gun. I like how somebody had to point out the error to him. I'd love to be the guys banker.

@andyg, another thing I've noticed is how well we play after getting publicly reamed out during a timeout. Unless that was just a distraction while Torts was secretly sprinkling fairy dust. Either way, effective.

What Torts did cannot be given enough credit. I don't know how many times I screamed at the TV during AVs tenure that he call a time out to get his team re-focused. He would never do it and the team never responded. That's what happened in 2011 and iy cost the team.

Truth is you can't do it every time, but you can when appropriate. And after Smith's first goal, boy was it appropriate.

What Torts did cannot be given enough credit. I don't know how many times I screamed at the TV during AVs tenure that he call a time out to get his team re-focused. He would never do it and the team never responded. That's what happened in 2011 and iy cost the team.

Truth is you can't do it every time, but you can when appropriate. And after Smith's first goal, boy was it appropriate.

Indeed, that timeout is definitely one main reason why having Torts here was a very good idea. This is coaching at its best, and fits his personality. But we will see how it plays out in the end. A well-timed eruption of Mt. Vesuvius is good (and a pleasure to watch), but doing it too often would lead only to too much damage.

I know that Vancouver has feasted on the East this year, but this is ridiculous. The best part of the game was the point contribution from all lines. And I hate to be mean, but here's hoping that Sestido's injury is a long one.

It was not so obvious in the Bruins game but very noticale in the Oilers game. Vcr is borrowing tactics from other sports. The Puck possession as in soccer and the full court press as in Basketball....and it's working a treat. And the bust sticks...how many times was Cahara stripped from the puck...

I'm sure this may be an over simplification but the belief " they can't score while we have the puck" ....seems to be working a treat

On another note. The actions leading up to Thornton's 15 game suspension reminds me of the Moore vs Bertuzzi incident. Anyone remember how many games Bett received from the league for his sucker punch?

On another note. The actions leading up to Thornton's 15 game suspension reminds me of the Moore vs Bertuzzi incident. Anyone remember how many games Bett received from the league for his sucker punch?

One thing that really stands out is the overall toughness of the team has increased. The Bs started doing their goon tactics and the Canucks pushed back without going into the penalty box. Torts style is really beginning to show and the Canucks are responding. One thing that has come to mind is how long it will be before the trade Edler for scoring starts. The D corps has played well in his absence, but I don't seedier going anywhere because of his no trade clause. The guy took less money to stay so he won't be waving that anytime soon. Keep it rolling boys.

One thing that really stands out is the overall toughness of the team has increased. The Bs started doing their goon tactics and the Canucks pushed back without going into the penalty box. Torts style is really beginning to show and the Canucks are responding. One thing that has come to mind is how long it will be before the trade Edler for scoring starts. The D corps has played well in his absence, but I don't seedier going anywhere because of his no trade clause. The guy took less money to stay so he won't be waving that anytime soon. Keep it rolling boys.

Yeah, I thought Edler would've been a nice piece to move during the summer. A deep draft and all. Detroit are high on him and they have some young players. Ah well. I think he's here for a while until he falls out of favor with Torts. To be fair, Edler is solid and has many years left so it isn't a terrible situation.

I agree. I think the Edler hate is over the top. If Hamhuis and Tanev become the shutdown pair, Bieksa and Stanton are reliable for another 18 minutes a night, then having Edler and Garrison for PP and another 18 is a pretty solid option. Edler remains an extremely strong defenseman. Maybe not as good as people projected him to be and inconsistent -- but maybe without the pressure of playing 22 minutes a night and taking him off the PP (or second unit) improves his performance. I don't know if a trade window opens up for him again in the off-season but maybe then. I also don't think he's lost Tortorella's confidence, anymore than Hansen after the poking rage or the whole team after they got an earful during the timeout last game.

I agree. I think the Edler hate is over the top. If Hamhuis and Tanev become the shutdown pair, Bieksa and Stanton are reliable for another 18 minutes a night, then having Edler and Garrison for PP and another 18 is a pretty solid option. Edler remains an extremely strong defenseman. Maybe not as good as people projected him to be and inconsistent -- but maybe without the pressure of playing 22 minutes a night and taking him off the PP (or second unit) improves his performance. I don't know if a trade window opens up for him again in the off-season but maybe then. I also don't think he's lost Tortorella's confidence, anymore than Hansen after the poking rage or the whole team after they got an earful during the timeout last game.

It's not "Edler hate" so much as it is "having too much money tied up in the D while we could really use one more scorer if we want to go far" hate.

I think Edler has been the 5th best Canuck defenseman this season, and you could make the case that even Stanton has been better (obviously Stanton plays less and faces much lower QoC). Simply put, I don't see what Edler can do that the others cannot. I still think defence is a position of strength and scoring is a position of weakness, and I think trading from strength to shore up weakness is always the logical move.

I personally don't think I would have signed Edler to the extension; I definitely would not have wanted to give a NTC.

"On the other hand, if Gillis didn't feel teams were offering appropriate value for Edler prior to his NTC kicking in, I'm not sure what's changed to improve his trade value."

This is just conjecture; I don't think an Edler move was in the plans at the point where he was re-signed. I think the combination of Edler's continued shaky and inconsistent play and the emergence of Tanev and others has made this something that needs to happen.

I'm not entirely sure what you get for him either, but I do truly believe that he's the 5th best defenseman on this team (right now) and he's being paid as the best. Gotta change.

"On the other hand, if Gillis didn't feel teams were offering appropriate value for Edler prior to his NTC kicking in, I'm not sure what's changed to improve his trade value."

This is just conjecture; I don't think an Edler move was in the plans at the point where he was re-signed. I think the combination of Edler's continued shaky and inconsistent play and the emergence of Tanev and others has made this something that needs to happen.

I'm not entirely sure what you get for him either, but I do truly believe that he's the 5th best defenseman on this team (right now) and he's being paid as the best. Gotta change.

I agree with both of your points. In my mind the same arguments could be made for Burr getting moved. It's still really early to tell but I think either are candidates at the moment. I think we're deepest on wing and defensive depth always comes in handy come playoff time. If we move a high priced winger it's less of a gamble with our depth. Lord knows we've already made enough of those moves (See Utica Comets). Maybe the announcement of the cap rising gets a few GM's trigger happy in the near future? Still seems early for a big trade.

But if you're not going to get full value -- and I don't think you would selling him when he's at a low -- what's the point? I think NM00 is right, if we didn't move him during the NTC window during the draft when he was at a high why would we get more for him now? He's younger than Bieksa (who I think is a riskier gamble) and I think still has more upside than Garrison and better offensive skills overall than Tanev. I think this is a lot of knee-jerk reaction to some inconsistent play by Edler.

We're not yet at the cap crunch that might be to come. I think we need to play things out a bit more before jettisoning good parts. Personally I think if we were to trade someone like Edler I'd rather do it for good picks than for a middling player. But that opportunity seems gone after last summer.

Indeed, that timeout is definitely one main reason why having Torts here was a very good idea. This is coaching at its best, and fits his personality. But we will see how it plays out in the end. A well-timed eruption of Mt. Vesuvius is good (and a pleasure to watch), but doing it too often would lead only to too much damage.

And here's the thing: you can't put a statistic on something that lights a fire under your arse.

The big thing that Torts is trying to get through to this core is that its window is closing. If they want to win a Cup, it is no longer okay to wait for the referees to even the score. You need to man up and answer the physicality. In 2011, the Canucks were actually the bigger team. But in hindsight,they played tiny. Now, they might even be bigger and with players like Kassian, Richardson and Stanton, plus a matured Tanev, there is no reason a team like Boston should push them around.

And not for nothing, but my God is Bergeron a hell of a centre. I appreciate his game more and more each season.